When you, like me, lived via the aughts, you will always remember 2006. The yr was prolific for minting cultural icons: it is when Taylor Swift launched her debut album, “The Satan Wears Prada” hit theaters, “The Actual Housewives” dropped its first season, everybody was watching “Excessive College Musical” for the primary time, and sure, Popsugar was born. (It is also once I went all-in on tanning beds and chunky highlights — two issues I am glad to depart firmly up to now.)
As we rejoice our twentieth anniversary as a media model, I have been pondering loads recently about what it should have been prefer to launch a web site again then, on the peak of the celeb weblog period. Regardless of a lot good taking place on this planet of leisure, the cultural commentary on-line was brutal: physique shaming headlines, invasive paparazzi photographs, brutal takedowns by strangers on the web. That additionally created a possibility: Popsugar emerged as the intense spot.
“I wished it to be a protected house,” founding editor Lisa Sugar just lately advised me. Lisa began the corporate in 2006 (properly, technically, she began running a blog in 2005, however PS formally turned integrated the next yr) along with her husband Brian and a few pals as a spot to rejoice all of the issues she beloved in popular culture. Rapidly, the positioning turned embedded within the cultural second that outlined millennial fandom. By the point Lisa employed me to run the wonder division eight years in the past, Popsugar had a worldwide viewers and protection that spanned health, style, magnificence, health, meals, and parenting.
When you go searching at the moment, the impression of the early aughts is in all places. 20 years later, and we’re getting reboots, reunions, and returns of the 2000s style and wonder tendencies everyone knows and love. Many icons have advanced within the years since, together with Popsugar. So to mark the milestone, we’re taking you again to the last decade that is outlined and endured in opposition to all odds. When actuality TV, mall style, and celeb blogs (ahem) formed what folks talked about. And importantly, we’re exploring what the comeback of all of the above says about society now.
I hope you will be a part of us in reliving the magic with every of our cowl tales — that includes Tahj Mowry, Monique Coleman, Daniella Monet, and Sabrina Bryan — and dive into the feel-good impact of all of your favourite moments making a grand return in 2026.
I additionally hope you will take pleasure in my dialog under with Lisa Sugar, the one who dreamt up this particular little nook of the web, as she displays on the way it all got here to be.
Kelsey Castañon: Take me again to 2006. What was the media panorama like then, and what did you need Popsugar to be?
Lisa Sugar: In 2006, media web sites weren’t a factor on the web. There was Gawker and Perez Hilton, principally a whole lot of actually snarky stuff. When it got here to the established manufacturers, there was simply nothing on-line. Individuals journal was a touchdown web page to getting subscriptions. On the similar time, blogs had been beginning to pop up and there have been group boards the place you possibly can discover celeb road model photographs that will later find yourself in print. However the paparazzi was ruthless, the feedback had been horrible. When Popsugar first began it got here from that celeb fan angle — simply eager to rejoice and help them from a constructive place.
Our unique imaginative and prescient was to recreate a newsstand on-line, multi functional place. I labored in promoting and received entry to all of the magazines without cost — I beloved Glamour, Fortunate, all of them. It was simply so sluggish; you bought them month-to-month. Even with the weeklies, by the point you bought the difficulty on Friday the photographs had been every week previous. I noticed we may ship the information a lot sooner. I’d assessment TV pilots and new motion pictures and books earlier than they dropped. I knew I wished to combine buying early on, as a result of then I may share the wonder merchandise I beloved as a lot as I wished.
KC: What’s one celeb story or popular culture second that modified all the pieces?
LS: There have been two massive moments that put Popsugar on the map. The primary was when Renée Zellweger received married to Kenny Chesney. When the information broke I received entry to the one picture and revealed it three days earlier than every other media outlet. Site visitors simply took off, and it additionally introduced in individuals who wished to associate with and spend money on us, like NBC. The opposite is once I received early entry to the Self-importance Truthful [issue] that includes Jennifer Aniston’s first interview post-Brad Pitt. I used to be capable of cowl the highlights, and the response was simply big.
KC: Inform me about these early days of beginning the model. When do you know it was one thing particular?
LS: Within the first yr we in all probability had a dozen workers. I used to be 29. I simply had a child. I used to be like, “Do folks need a child within the workplace? That is bizarre.” However we had been all simply constructing this factor, and we turned shut like household.
We had been additionally rising like loopy. Inside 9 months we had one million folks come to the positioning, and so they’re coming again a number of instances a day. Then inside that first yr we began launching different verticals. Pricey Sugar was our recommendation column, Fab Sugar was for style, Bella was magnificence, Match was health. Ultimately we had 11, and every website had an avatar impressed by a star. In fact nobody knew they had been impressed by celebrities, however that is how we [the editors] considered them; we had Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson, JLo, Kerry Washington. . .
KC: This was all earlier than social media existed. How do you know what verticals folks would reply to?
LS: All of the locations you go now, the group boards like Reddit, they did not exist. So we constructed them. We had been noticing within the remark part on popsugar.com that individuals had been changing into pals and standing up for one another. We set the precedent: we do not speak crap right here within the feedback. Go some place else for that.
Ultimately we observed folks began having conversations within the feedback, like “What are you studying?” or “What are you cooking?” so we listened to that. We launched Yum Sugar. After which inside all these websites, we then launched group boards, and other people went fucking loopy. All the wonder evaluations went nuts, which was an enormous class for us. Then we launched recipes. In a single day we had 20,000 folks submitting recipes. The boards advised us what folks wished. We had been forward of our time again then, folks weren’t doing that sort of stuff then, however group — that is nonetheless all the pieces.
